Gizmodo: sdi

25 Years of the Other Star Wars

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:10:30 EDT

Not so long ago, right here in our Galaxy, Emperor Ronald Reagan announced the other Star Wars, the Strategic Defense Initiative which started the last phase of the Cold War with the Soviet Union (whom, funnily enough, El Presidente called the Evil Empire.) In these 25 years since his March 23 speech, calling the scientific community to give the "means of rendering nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete," the SDI has morphed into various projects and technologies, like the Aegis interception system which took down the evil spy satellite last February, as you can see in this official Department of Defense video. Here's the story of the SDI program and how it evolved:

El Presidente saying words during his SDI speeh

• 1984. The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization is established. Reagan puts Lt. General James Alan Abrahamson from the USAF in charge, a past Director of the NASA Space Shuttle program. On retrospective, not a good sign.
• 1987. The SDIO develops the idea of the Strategic Defense System Phase I Architecture, a system that included ground and space based sensors and weapons, all controlled from a central location. This is a concept that still works today.
• 1991. George Bush Sr. changes Reagan's tune and changes the focus of SDI to a more limited, more regional oriented. The Global Protection Against Limited Strikes is born.
• On 18 January 1991 a Patriot interceptor missile is reported to have engaged a SCUD missile over Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War. Later, it was found to be just a computer glitch. No SCUD ever launched on that day. The accuracy of Patriots was close to zero, according to analysis after the war. The success rate during the war was claimed to be 97% by George Bush Sr. (reportedly, the Israelis were so dissatisfied with the system they planed to retaliate against Iraq on their own.)
• 1993. Bill Clinton closes the SDIO and forms the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.
• During the George Bush Jr. administration the concept has been revived, forming the National Missile Defense and Ground-based Midcourse Defense.
• 20 February 2008. An Aegis missile successfully intercepts a defunct spy satellite the size of a bus falling down to Earth.

[Wikipedia]

Blackmagic Design Intensity: HDMI I/O for Macs and PCs

Charlie White — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 18:55:19 EDT

Blackmagic Design introduced Intensity, the first HDMI PCI Express card. It can pass an HD signal straight out of a low-cost HDV camcorder and into a Mac or PC without needing to be compressed into the HDV format. This will be a blessing for users of HDV camcorders that have HDMI ports, such as Sony's just-introduced HDR-FX7. Now, vid-jockeys can edit in uncompressed HD without the need for more expensive SDI (serial digital interface)-based cameras or decks.

Intensity can also output HDMI video, so HD video editing can be monitored in real time on big-screen TVs, projectors or high-rez monitors. The card even lets pros playout HD video to broadcast. No word if the card will also be HDCP-compliant, letting us mere mortals watch copy-protected HD on an HDCP display. Even if it doesn't, this is hot stuff, especially since it costs just $249. Available October 15. – Charlie White

Press Release [Blackmagic Design, via CrunchGear]

Matrox Ships MXO for Mac Video Editing

Charlie White — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 14:00:05 EDT

Matrox just shipped MXO, a handy little box for Mac users who edit professional-level video. Connected to the Mac's secondary DVI port and also hooked up to USB 2.0, this portable unit converts that computer video into TV video, allowing the signal to be recorded easily in real time. It can also be output to a variety of formats such as component, composite, S-Video, and even SDI, in both high definition and standard definition.

MXO is capable of some counterintuitive feats as well, such as extracting 8 channels of SDI embedded audio with stereo audio monitoring from the secondary DVI port on a Mac. Another advantage is that it's compatible with most Macs including laptops, iMacs and G5 desktops. Final Cut Pro video editors on the Mac will love this thing.

The best part of MXO is, until now, Mac users couldn't get an accurate view of what would actually be seen on a television screen when watching their productions in full-screen view on a computer display. Now they can get that full 1080i effect, using this $995 box. I've seen this baby, and it's fo' real. – Charlie White

Product Page [Matrox]

First Look [Creative Mac]